Postage metering systems are well known in the art. A postage metering system applies evidence of postage, commonly referred to as postal indicia, to envelopes or other mailpieces and accounts for the value of the postage dispensed. A typical postage metering system includes a postal security device (PSD) coupled to a host system. The PSD is a secure processor-based accounting device that dispenses and accounts for postage value stored therein. PSDs also typically include cryptographic capabilities so that they are able to print postal indicia in a secure, verifiable manner and engage in other secure communications and transactions. The host system may be, for example, a meter-based host processor or a personal computer that includes a printing capability. In many instances, mailers employ multiple postage metering systems in order to processes large volumes of mail, possibly at multiple locations.
Over time, postage metering systems, and in particular PSDs, have evolved to meet the needs of both mailers and postal authorities through the introduction of more sophisticated and faster networking capabilities, faster and more capable processors, and more powerful cryptographic algorithms. In many cases, mailers accumulate a number of postage metering systems and/or devices, such as mailing machines, that employ postage metering systems with varying levels of networking capabilities, processing powers and/or cryptographic algorithms. As will be appreciated, in some cases a particular postage metering system, and specifically a particular PSD thereof, may not have the ability to perform one or more required cryptographic operations due to resource or design limitations or may be able to perform the required operation but at a slower (relative to other devices of the mailer) rate.
Thus, with the advances in networking technology that exist, such as gigabit Ethernet, it would be advantageous to be able to offload certain cryptographic processing from one postage metering system to another device, such as, for example, in the case where a first postage metering system does not have the ability to perform the operation but a second postage metering system does, or in the case where the first postage metering has the ability to perform the operation but the second postage metering system can do it faster.